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President Obama’s much-anticipated speech at Georgetown University unveiling America’s new climate change strategy offers welcome re-affirmation of the US government’s recognition of global warming dangers. Plans to regulate coal plants, beef up defences against flooding and sea level rise, increase energy efficiency for homes and businesses, and fast track permits for renewable energy on public lands, are critical steps forward.

But the new climate strategy remains fatally compromised by Obama’s unflinching commitment to the maximum possible exploitation of fossil fuels – a contradiction that has set the world on course to trigger unmitigated catastrophe in coming decades.

Central to the plan is Obama’s reiteration of his commitment to cutting US greenhouse gas emissions 17% from 2005 levels by 2020. But this target is too little, too late – amounting to only a 4% cut in emissions compared with 1990 levels.

Even before this target was enshrined into US law, scientists warned that the pledge “will not be enough to head off dangerous climate change” as global temperatures would still breach the 2C target accepted by governments as the safe limit for global warming.

Indeed, one study found that:

    “The pledges on the table will not halt emissions growth before 2040… Instead, global emissions are likely to be nearly double 1990 levels by 2040 based on present pledges.”

A new study by Climate Action Tracker (CAT) out this month concludes that full implementation of the pledges would still lead to a 3.3C rise by 2100. Based on actual climate policies so far, however, CAT warned that governments are “less likely than ever to deliver on the Copenhagen pledges.” If this continues, temperatures could exceed 4C by the end of the century, triggering positive feedbacks leading to further warming.